


Sour Little Flavour

by ShadowHaloedAngel



Series: Stay [3]
Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Attempted Sexual Assault, Beating, Begging, Date Rape Drug/Roofies, F/F, Heist Wives, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Prison, Violence, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-20 22:26:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16146824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowHaloedAngel/pseuds/ShadowHaloedAngel
Summary: Hanging out at Lou’s club, someone slips something into Debbie’s drink. Lou finds her barely conscious, trying and failing to fight off an assailant. Heartbreakingly, even when Lou’s got her somewhere safe, the pleading doesn’t stop.Prompts: 4. ”No, stop!”/17. drugged; 13. “Stay.”





	Sour Little Flavour

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to flightinflame for sending me the prompts, to Fahre for inspiration, and to Why for being an exceedingly patient and appropriately evil sounding board and second pair of eyes. 
> 
> I took one look at the prompts and knew I had to do something with Debbie and Lou for them, but rather than doing the challenge properly with a series of short fics, I ended up planning out a whole series with a story arc and everything, combining prompts into stories. I've never done anything like this before, and I appreciate that I'm not technically doing it properly this time, but I'm excited about it. The whole series is planned, but might not all go up during October depending on how long it takes me to write. Obviously, warning, this is based on Whumptober prompts, and it's going to go pretty dark at times. I promise there will be a happy ending, because I don't do hurt without comfort, it's just that this time there's going to be a little longer to wait. I hope you'll find it worth it.
> 
> Oh, and I'll award cookies to people who figure out what the connection is between work titles as the month goes on

It's been a couple of weeks since Debbie had her seizure, and fortunately there's been no sign of a repeat. Of course, she still hasn't said anything about where the hell those bruises came from, and Lou's given up asking. She doesn't really know how to broach the topic when Debbie's already so distant from her. Lou's made up some ground, but she's fighting tooth and nail to hold onto it, and pushing any further might just cost her the war even if she wins the battle. She's aware that Debbie's picked up on something, because Lou can't help but hold her a little tighter, can't help the way she touches Debbie all of a sudden as if she might break. Lou knows what it feels like to have pressure on a bruise, even one that's almost healed. She hates the idea that she might have been hurting Debbie without knowing it, but it wasn't like Debbie had given anything away and Lou isn't psychic. 

They've fallen into some kind of routine and Lou's adjusting to her old life, but now with added Debbie Ocean and secrets Lou can sense bubbling darkly under the surface waiting to drown them both. Lou is still running the club, it's getting towards the busier summer season as the weather starts to improve and the evenings get longer. They're open four nights a week, and these days Debbie seems happy enough to spend time hanging around downstairs. It's kind of nice really. Lou feels better having Debbie around, even if there's still a gulf between them. She naturally gravitates in Debbie's direction, like the Ocean is a lead weight on the rubber sheet of the universe. Besides, nothing unusual has happened for weeks now, Debbie's been sleeping almost normally, she recovered from her fever and there haven't been any problems since and Lou's starting to hope against hope that she's been wrong about everything and they're finally back to some kind of normal. 

It's a Friday night and the club is buzzing. They've been open for a good few hours now, there's quite the crowd and the music is pounding away. Lou's in the back, working on the most illicit part of her new business when Farah, one of the bar staff, comes running in.

Lou leaps to her feet instinctively, because Farah is one of the most unflappable people she knows, that's why she's such a valuable part of Lou's team, and if Farah's looking like that then something's up. 

"Ma'am, thought you should know, your friend just went outside with some guy."

Now, Lou's never exactly said anything about Debbie to her team, but she hasn't been trying to hide anything either. Her protective instincts when it comes to Debbie have been ramped up to eleven lately, and there's still that easy intimacy between them in looks and touches that there's been no need to conceal.

"What?"

She's already running, because there has to be more to it than just Debbie going with a guy. No matter what Farah may think is between them, she wouldn't just interfere in an adult doing their thing, no matter her own personal opinion of it. 

Farah's quick on her heels. 

"I'll check the CCTV, let you know if I find anything."

And Lou's still running. 

She heads straight for the bar, because Debbie's got a usual seat there at this point and somebody has to have seen something. 

Peggy looks up as she notices Lou approaching, shoving her way through the crowd not particularly gently, and to Lou's eternal gratitude she doesn't waste time with stupid questions. Farah and Peggy have both been with her since the beginning, and they know how to read a situation. 

"I saw them heading towards the door about three minutes ago. Your friend wasn't in a good way, I'm not convinced she was moving under her own steam at all. I sent Farah to grab you the moment I noticed them leaving. I've been serving all night, and there's no way I served your friend enough to get her into that state. She usually nurses one drink a night."

And Lou knows them both, knows there's no way either of them would ever overserve anyone, and every instinct she has is /screaming/ as she sprints towards the fire exit Peggy was pointing to.

She careers out into the alley, the metal door slamming back against the wall with a BANG that echoes through the air, and she can see them, she can see two figures up against a wall and she'd know Debbie anywhere. She's spent enough time pressing Debbie up against walls, or rifling the pockets of marks while Debbie distracts them, to know exactly what it looks like. 

As she approaches, the soft murmuring resolves itself into actual words and Lou feels her stomach turn, because she can see his hands on Debbie, see one going up under her dress, one on her breasts, and his head's against her throat, and Debbie is trying to push him away, the movements weak and ineffectual as her body arches away as far as she can against the wall, which isn't far enough. 

"No, stop... stop... I don't know... I don't know anything... hnn... stop... please..."

And her blood is /boiling/ and Lou can understand all of a sudden how anger makes the Hulk transform as she grabs the guy by the jacket and yanks him back and off, shoving him against the wall in turn and swinging a punch at his head to make it ring as her knee comes up into his crotch and she starts taking out all the frustration that's been knotted up in her stomach for the past two weeks, because even if this guy isn't part of some shadowy conspiracy, he was /hurting/ Debbie while she was defenceless, and Lou will /never/ accept that. Not ever. 

It's Debbie's whimpering that pulls her out of the red mist, because Debbie hasn't moved, she hasn't fled the fight, she hasn't moved to intervene, she's just limp there against the wall, shaking her head and weakly pushing at the air. 

"No... No, stop..."

And Lou freezes, then shoves the guy to the ground and spits on him, sparing one more kick to his gut before she goes back to Debbie, catching her hands as gently as she can and trying to get Debbie to focus on her. 

"Hey... Hey... Debbie..."

"No-"

And if Lou had thought she knew what heartbreak felt like before, now she knows what it feels like for your heart to shatter into a thousand pieces like a glass someone's dropped on the floor, because Debbie, her Debbie, begging her like that is the worst sound in the world.

"...Come on, let's get back inside..."

And Lou wraps an arm around her waist, and the way Debbie's so pliable, the way she just leans into Lou's side, pressing up against her like it's the easiest thing in the world makes acid burn in her throat as she takes a few breaths, trying to fight down the nausea again. Debbie Ocean has never been anybody's plaything, and this has ripped all her defences away without so much as a by-your-leave. What makes it worse still is the way, when Lou is taking her through the club, shoving her way through and heading for the stairs because her work night is over and all that matters now is getting Debbie away and safe, nobody looks twice at someone practically manhandling a girl drunk out of her mind through the middle of the club. That makes Lou want to scream at them all, to rage at them, because no, this should never /ever/ be acceptable and she's worked so hard to make this a safe place for women to come and let their hair down, but now is not the time to take on the entire patriarchy, because Debbie is too warm against her side all over again and Lou just needs to get away from all of this. 

She makes eye contact with Peggy across the club, and the woman offers her a brief nod, a short, sharp gesture that Lou knows means she sees them, and that Peggy and Farah will handle everything that needs to be handled for the rest of the night. 

Debbie doesn't weigh much at all as Lou practically drags her up the stairs, and she can't afford to dwell on that, and hell, maybe it's pure rage making all of this easier. That's a thing, right? Adrenaline making people stronger? Either way Lou's got her up the stairs and into their bedroom, and she sets Debbie on the bed as gently as she can, stroking her hair back out of her face.

Debbie whimpers again, hand coming up in a failed attempt to fend Lou off, and it's all Lou can do not to flinch. 

"No, no... don't... please... don't make it hurt... I don't know... I don't know... stop, please stop..."

Despite herself, Lou turns on her heel and walks away. Not out of the room, just to the bathroom, just to splash cold water on her face and stare at her own reflection in the mirror while her heart pounds in her ears. She wants so much to believe that this is an isolated incident, just the kind of fucking bullshit thing that happens to women everywhere, everyday, but it seems like too much of a coincidence on top of everything else that's been going on, and nothing that's spilling from Debbie's lips right now - as sick as it makes her feel - is making Lou feel better about it. 

When she's steadied her own nerves enough to go back, she heads back into the bedroom, back to Debbie's side. She sits on the edge of the bed, bracing her elbows on her knees and leaning forward to breathe a moment. Debbie's gone quiet in the time she was in the bathroom and Lou doesn't know whether to be grateful for that or not. She checks that she's still breathing again, hand to her forehead, hand to her chest, and Debbie's heartbeat is fluttering but strong, and her temperature is normal. Lou supposes she should be grateful for that, but it's starting to feel like she's checking whether Debbie's still alive on far too regular a basis. 

Debbie groans a little when Lou touches her, turning her head away and waving her arm in another attempt to fend Lou off. There's no strength to the movement at all. 

"Mmmn... no... Lou... where're you... stop... no, stop! You're not... not Lou... Lou!"

And /oh/ every single word feels like a knife to her heart. 

She doesn't even know if Debbie can hear her at all, but she has to try because Lou is not prepared to just sit by while Debbie faces whatever these demons are alone. 

"I'm here, Deb. I'm here. Not going anywhere. I'm right here."

She takes one of Debbie's hands, then the other one for good measure, because she wants to hold on as tight as she can because it feels like Debbie is slipping through her fingers and Lou wants to cry. 

"Lou... 'm sorry Lou... please make it stop, 'm sorry... where'd you go... was I bad?"

"I'm /here/..." And Lou is fighting to keep the exasperation, the desperation out of her voice because Debbie does not need to be yelled at right now, "I'm here Deb. It's okay. You weren't- you weren't bad." And her voice cracks a little and Lou just rubs her thumbs over Debbie's knuckles because she can't trust herself to speak anymore.

"'m sorry Lou please stay with me... please don't go... please don't go..."

And Lou takes a deep breath and squeezes gently, forcing herself to calm down because her freaking out isn't helping anything at all. 

"I'm right here Debbie. I've got you. I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here."

"Stay..." 

And it's the last word Debbie breathes as she turns her head and closes her eyes, breathing slowing as she passes out, and Lou clings on so tight to Debbie's hands that her knuckles go white because it's the only way she can stop herself from breaking down. Lou can't remember the last time she cried, even then it was probably over Debbie Ocean, and honestly after the beating she doled out earlier her own knuckles /ache/ and she can see the scrapes on them, the traces of blood. None of that matters right now though, not compared to the woman in front of her. Nobody can get under her skin like Debbie Ocean, and right now Lou just wishes she could keep her safe. This was meant to be a safe place, somewhere Debbie could come home and rebuild, this was Lou's castle... but apparently it's not safe anymore and Lou doesn't even understand why.

**Author's Note:**

> Brief cameos here from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency's Farah Black, and from Marvel's Peggy Carter. Just because I can.
> 
> I promise answers are finally coming in the next part.


End file.
